Rockets reach out to center
Daryl Morey is using the personal touch to lure free-agent Orlando Magic center Marcin Gortat.
The Houston Rockets general manager showed up at Gortat's home in Orlando, Fla., just after midnight Wednesday, virtually the minute teams were officially allowed to begin negotiating with free agents. Morey even announced the meeting on his Facebook page and urged fans to leave notes for Gortat at an e-mail address -- rocketsfans lovegortat@gmail.com.
All the love for Gortat is driven by the uncertainty surrounding Rockets center Yao Ming. A team doctor said Monday that the hairline fracture in Yao's left foot could threaten his career.
The team said last week that Yao was out indefinitely and was seeking other medical opinions to plot a new course of treatment. Morey said Monday he would not comment further on Yao's status "until we get all the facts."
The 6-foot-11-inch Gortat averaged 3.8 points and 4.5 rebounds backing up Dwight Howard last season as the Magic reached the NBA Finals. He's a restricted free agent, meaning the Magic can match any offer from another team to keep the player.
• EVERYONE ON THE BUS -- Instead of the parade of taxis that usually delivers visiting players to the loading dock entrance at Milwaukee's Miller Park, the New York Mets on Wednesday rode together on a bus from their hotel.
If they haven't been playing as a team lately, at least they could arrive as one.
Ryan Church couldn't recall riding to a game on a team bus in his major league career. Francisco Rodriguez said it was "a little weird."
"A little bonding time with everybody," starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey said.
The Mets went on to break a season-worst five-game losing streak with a 1-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers despite a career-high 12 strikeouts from young Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo.
Mets manager Jerry Manuel wasn't particularly eager to credit the bus ride, or the previous night's postgame team meeting, as essential motivational techniques. After all, the next day's starter is allowed to leave the game early, so Pelfrey wasn't at Manuel's nearly half-hour clear-the-air session Tuesday night.
"I told him, 'If he'd been at the meeting, he would have thrown a no-hitter,' " Manuel said jokingly.
• NEW MEMBER -- A private, predominantly Baptist university has become a full member of the nation's oldest historically black conference.
Division II Chowan University's membership in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association officially began Wednesday, a year after the Hawks started playing football as the only nonhistorically black college in the league.
Chowan's unlikely affiliation with the CIAA started in 2007, when the Hawks shopped for a conference for their football program. The CIAA became a natural fit because of its location in Virginia and North Carolina and because several of its members had left for Division I.
COMPILED BY STEVE CARP LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
